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The cabinet on Monday approved the Vested Property (Restoration) (Amendment) Bill 2009 proposing provisions for publication of a gazette notification in 210 days with a list of such property for their restoration to the owners or their successors.
   The bill will be placed in the parliament soon for its enactment into a law.
   Earlier on September 9, a special cabinet meeting had approved in principle the bill seeking amendments to the Vested Property Restoration Act 2001.
   Monday’s meeting of the cabinet, with prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, also approved in principle the Acid Control (Amendment) Bill 2009, National Institute of Biotechnology Bill 2009, Bangladesh Environment Conservation (Amendment) Bill 2009 and Environment Court Bill 2009, the prime minister’s deputy press secretary told reporters.
   The Vested Property (Restoration) (Amendment) Bill is meant to ease the process of restoration of vested property to the owners or their successors, which was a major electoral pledge of the Awami League.
   The bill incorporated the changes to the act made by the Vested Property (Restoration) (Amendment) Ordinance 2008, promulgated by the military-controlled interim government on December 24, 2008, and some new provisions.
   If the bill is passed by the parliament, the government will need to publish a gazette notification in 210 days containing district-wise lists of the vested property to be restored to the owners or their successors.
   After the publication of the gazette notification, a list of the vested property, excluded from the list of the restorable vested property, will be displayed at the office of the assistant commissioner (land) and union parishad or municipality concerned for public examination, the bill said.
   According to the bill, a person may apply to the upazila or metropolitan committee concerned in 90 days after publication of the gazette notification claiming ownership of a vested property which has not been included in the list of the property meant for restoration.
   The upazila or metropolitan committee will have to submit a report to the deputy commissioner concerned after scrutinising the applications and conducting hearing and inquiries in 120 days, the bill said.
   It also says that the district committee would submit its report to the deputy commissioner with recommendation about each of the applications in 45 days on the basis of the report of the upazila or metropolitan committee and the deputy commissioner would give the decision in next 30 days.
   An aggrieved person will have the right to appeal to the central committee against the decision of the deputy commissioner in 30 days and the central committee would have to dispose of the appeal in 60 days, the bill said.
   In the 2001 act, there was no scope for a person to file such application claiming ownership of a property excluded from the list of the restorable vested property.
   According to the bill, the lawmaker and upazila chairman concerned will be advisers to the upazila committee headed by the upazila nirbahi officer. The committee will include the union parishad chairman or municipal mayor concerned, two social workers nominated by the local lawmaker, sub-registrar and assistant commissioner (land).
   The lawmaker concerned will be the adviser to the metropolitan committee headed by the additional district magistrate. The committee will include the ward commissioner concerned, two social workers nominated by the local lawmaker, sub-registrar and assistant commissioner (land).
   Additional deputy commissioner (revenue) will head the six-member district committee, which will include district registrar and two locally prominent persons nominated by the land minister. The lawmaker concerned will be the adviser to the committee.
   The land secretary will head the central committee, which will include a representative of the attorney general’s office, land reform board and inspector general of registration’s office, joint secretary (law), a deputy secretary and two prominent persons nominated by the land minister. The land minister and state minister will be advisers to the committee.
   The Enemy Property Act 1965 was enacted by the then Pakistan government to deal with the property of the Hindus who had migrated to India after 1947. This order was directed against those perceived as an enemy, and was used as an instrument for appropriating property belonging to Hindus.
   After Bangladesh had become independent, the Presidential Order 29 of 1972 changed the name of the law to the Vested Property Act without altering the content of the law. The previous AL government enacted the Vested Property Restoration Act in 2001 making provisions for restoration of the vested property to the owners or their successors.
   The successor BNP-led alliance government amended the act in 2002 extending the 180-day deadline for preparation of a list of the vested property for an ‘indefinite period.’
   A parliamentary standing committee on March 11, 2009 asked the land ministry to draft the new Vested Property Return Act restoring the six-month deadline for local authorities to prepare a list of lands seized under the law.
   The Acid Control (Amendment) Bill, proposes that punishment for false cases be increased to seven-year imprisonment from five years and the number of women representatives in the national committee increased to five from existing two, sources said.
   The bill was earlier placed in the cabinet on February 11 but it was sent back for further scrutiny and the prime minister then asked the ministry to consult experts before reviewing the bill and placing it in the cabinet.
   The cabinet also approved the proposals for amendment of Bangladesh Private Sector Infrastructure Guidelines (BPSIG).
   Three separate reports were also placed in the meeting on the participation of Bangladesh delegation in the Commonwealth finance ministerial conference and the annual meeting of the World Bank and IMF, participation of industries minister Dilip Barua in a conference organised by WIPO in Geneva and participation in the 7th global editors’ forum in Copenhagen, Denmark.
   State minister for environment and forest, Hasan Mahmud placed the report on the 7th global editors’ forum in the meeting.
   The meeting also ratified the protocol on the Preferential Tariff Scheme for TPS-OIC (PRETAS), the prime minister’s deputy press secretary said.

The authorities concerned on Monday could not complete the official procedures for forming the committee to probe Saturday’s labour unrest in Tongi.
   The home affairs ministry on Sunday ordered formation of a five-member committee, to be led by labour secretary Ataharul Islam, for investigating the workers’ agitation against the sudden and previously unannounced lay-off by a readymade garments factory in Tongi that left three persons dead and many others, including lawmen, injured.
   But neither the home affairs ministry nor the labour ministry has taken any initiative on the matter as yet, according to official sources.
   ‘We are just awaiting a letter from the home affairs ministry on the decision to constitute an investigation committee. The labour ministry has neither received any copy of the meeting’s resolution mentioning the decision nor even got the names of other members of the body,’ labour secretary Ataharul Islam told New Age on Monday afternoon.
   The secretary, who is due to leave the country on November 12 for attending a conference in Geneva, said that once the official procedures for forming the probe body were completed, the committee would make sure that every second was utilized fully to complete the investigation on time.
   The killing and the shooting of the workers of the Nippon Garments Industry Ltd, who had blocked the Dhaka-Mymensingh Road for about four hours, had led to further clashes between the garment factory workers and the lawmen, leaving more than a hundred injured.
   The committee has been asked to find out those responsible for the violent clashes and the reason behind the labour unrest in the industrial area on the outskirts of the city.
   The home affairs ministry did not send any copy of the meeting’s resolution till Monday evening, confirmed officials at the labour and employment ministry.
   ‘We are working on the matter…A letter will be sent to the labour ministry tomorrow asking for formation of the investigation body,’ said a senior official of the home affairs ministry.
   The inquiry committee will comprise representatives of the home affairs ministry, Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association and garment factory workers, announced home affairs minister Sahara Khatun on Sunday after a meeting on Saturday’s labour unrest and violent clashes in Tongi.
   Sahara Khatun, after presiding over the meeting on the issue at the secretariat, asserted that those who were found responsible for Saturday’s incident — workers, owners or anyone else — would not be spared.
   ‘Anyone responsible for the incident will not be spared…It may be the workers, owners or any godfather who were responsible for the violence in which both the public and police, besides the workers, were injured,’ said Sahara.
   State minister for home affairs Shamsul Haque Tuku, state minister for labour Munnujan Sufian, labour leaders and representatives of BGMEA and BKMEA and senior officials of law-enforcing agencies, along with others, attended Sunday’s meeting at the home affairs ministry.

Shila was to be in her honeymoon, but she is now moaning with pain in the bed of the Acid Survivors Foundation hospital in the capital.
   A first-year student of Pangsha University College, Shila was going to be married to an expatriate in Saudi Arabian on October 30.
   Her sister Shimul came to her father’s home at Kamalapur in Kushtia to attend the wedding ceremony but their dreams were shattered as some miscreants poured acid on them through the open window when they were asleep about 4:00am on Thursday, the day before the ceremony.
   They were immediately taken to Khoksha Health Complex for primary treatment and later rushed to Dhaka under BRAC supervision at about 9:30am for better treatment.
   The victims are now in a trauma and hardly willing to talk to anyone, said the foundation officials.
   ‘Traumatised Shila and Shimul often sobs and most of the time do not speak,’ ASF executive director Monira Rahman said.
   ‘They are in a serious depression now as they fear social stigma,’ she said.
   Though they are gradually getting well physically, they are vulnerable psychologically, she said.
   According to the foundation statistics, a total 132 people across the country received acid burns in the past 10 months of this year.
   Monira Rahman said the incidents of acid violence are taking place for lack of implementation of the acid-related laws.
   The members of law enforcing agencies never go for the sources who supply the substance to the miscreants, she alleged, expressing fear that acid violence will not be stopped if the criminals are not punished.
   Statistics show that the 99 per cent of the victims file cases but the criminals somehow get away while only 10 to 12 per cent of the criminals receive punishment and the rest escape during the trial processes.
   About the physical condition of the victims, Monira said Shila received burn injury in the face and some parts of the body and Shimul in the throat.
   ‘We hope that they will recover within 10 days without surgery,’ she said, adding, ‘we will actually feel the depth of the injury and could say whether they will need a surgery or not.’
   The victims are the daughters of Idris Ali Choudhury, a resident of Kamalapur. The victims’ father filed a case with the Khoksa police under the Acid Crime Control Act, accusing Miraj, Ayub, Monwar and Rezaul of pouring acid on his daughters.

The police have arrested one Abdul Mazid, suspecting his involvement in the acid violence on two sisters at Khoksha in Kushtia.
   Kushtia superintendent of police Shahabuddin Khan visited the victims’ family on Sunday and instructed the local police for measures to catch the culprits.
   Khoksha Thana officer-in-charge of Belal Hossain Tarafdar Monday evening told New Age that they had arrested one Abdul Mazid on suspicion. Their hunt for other culprits was on.
   Miscreants poured acid on Shila, 22, and her sister Shimul, 28, when they were asleep in their house at Kamalpur under Khoksha Thursday night.
   Tomiz Sarkar, an uncle of the victims, said the family had been under oppression for a long time.
   The girls’ father is a LGED employee and stay out of home. The culprits earlier grabbed their land and disturbed the family by disconnecting power lines, pasting posters with ugly languages and sending letters. Shila’s wedding offers were hampered by them, he added.

Bangladesh will be looking to their batsmen to play the decisive role in today’s fourth one-day international against Zimbabwe at the Chittagong divisional stadium and help them wrap up the five-match series.
   The match will begin at 9:30am and will be telecast live by Bangladesh Television and Super Sport 5.
   The hosts mainly relied on their spinners so far in the series, which they lead 2-1, but unlike Dhaka, the venue of the first three matches, the wicket in Chittagong offers plenty of runs.
   ‘If a team like India get a chance to bat first here, I am sure they will be able to make around 350 runs against any attack,’ said a smiling curator Shafiul Alam, who has been nurturing the pitch for many years.
   The assessment of the nature of the wicket by the curator was later well supported by Bangladesh’s coach Jamie Siddons, who dubbed it pretty similar to the pitch in Bulawayo where Bangladesh had played in August.
   Bangladesh played a high-scoring series in Bulawayo making their highest ever one-day score of 320-8 and also successfully chased a 300-plus total for the first time in their history in that epic series, which they won 4-1.
   Bangladesh have made highest 231 runs in the ground, which is generally known as a batting-friendly strip. Despite this sad past, Siddons believed the Tigers would put up an improved show to repeat the result of Bulawayo.
    ‘I had said at the start of the tour that we’ll get better as the series goes on. I expect that to continue. We think we have done that so far. We weren’t quite ready in the first game but we’ll continue to get better,’ said the 45-year-old Australian.
   An unchanged squad with four spinners – Sakib al Hasan, Abdur Razzak, Enamul Haque Jr and Naeem Islam – and a pacer in Nazmul Hossain will play the fourth ODI today providing there is no dramatic development, said the coach.
   Zimbabwe, who will be playing their first match in this ground despite being common visitors to Bangladesh, however, are expected to make a couple of changes to their squad.
   Skipper Prosper Utseya, who missed the second and third matches for an ankle injury, has resumed training and will be subjected to fitness test, said his deputy Hamilton Masakadza.
   Top-order batsman Mark Vermuelen, who did not play any game so far due to illness, has also showed signs of improvement and had opened the batting in the nets with Brendon Taylor on Monday.
   If Vermuelen returns to the team it is almost certain that Foster Mutizwa will have to make the room for him. Mutizwa had replaced the injured former skipper Tatenda Taibu for the third match and was out for a duck. Taibu did not train on Monday.
   Masakadza, their stand-in captain in the last two games, however, looked desperate to hand back the job to Utseya not just because he lost both the games as captain, but because the team needs their captain more than anyone else.
   In the second and third matches, left-handed batsmen Sakib and Tamim tormented their bowlers and Masakadza believed with Utseya in the side it would have been difficult for them.
   ‘Hopefully we will be able to contain Bangladesh’s left-handed batsmen with his off-spin,’ said Masakadza, one of the three batsmen in the world to have scored more than 1,000 runs in this calendar year.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has categorically said the government will not tolerate anymore chaotic situation in the export-oriented garment sector and urged the factory owners to ensure all types of requisite facilities for the workers.
   Inaugurating the 5th Bangladesh Knitwear Exhibition 2009, she pointed out that with the present low-scale salaries the garment workers find it very difficult to make both ends meet.
   Drawing attention of the apparel industries’ owners to a stark disparity, the prime minister said in many cases, the money spent on a day’s shopping by an owner was more than the monthly salary of a garment worker.
   ‘We do not expect such a reality. One thing you (owners) have to keep in mind that by oppressing the workers and depriving them, no industry can sustain,’ Hasina said.
   Incidentally, the rude reminder from the prime minister came barely three days after violent clashes at a Tongi garment factory following abrupt layoff that left three people dead and over a hundred wounded.
   The prime minister called upon the owners to ensure economic uplift of the workers.
   About the brewing industrial unrest in the sector, Hasina urged the owners to find out the reasons for the workers’ discontent.
   Terming the workforce the ‘driving wheels’ of the apparel industry, the prime minister said workers’ efficiency and labour was inevitable for an industry’s development.
   She noted that her government was always active in upholding the rights of the workers and has already taken several important measures for their welfare.
   ‘In fact, overall activities of an industry can be operated smoothly if a good relation prevails between its owners and workers,’ she told the inaugural function of the apparel show.
   She said owners and workers both would have to be brought under government’s investigation process if any further violent incident occurred in the main export sector of the country.
   About the violent incidents that took place on October 31 in Gazipur, the prime minister said the government with a strong hand curbed the outbreaks of violence.
   ‘Those who want to destroy this sector are enemies of our economy and workers. All will have to remain alert against the evil quarter,’ the prime minister said in a strongly worded note of warning.
   Referring to a demand of the BKMEA for providing them land in the capital city to set up their official headquarters, she said the knitwear-sector association could turn their Narayanganj headquarters into a modern one.
   The government has already decided to set up Gazipur-Dhaka-Narayanganj elevated expressway and introduce modern railways and waterways linking these areas.
   Hasina suggested that the apparel industries’ owners should take financial assistance from government’s housing fund to set dormitories for garment workers, especially for the female workers as they are 80 per cent of the total workforce of this sector.
   About the government-sponsored stimulus package of Tk 4,000 crore to face the fallout of the global economic recession, the prime minister said now which sector to take how much in their share from the package depended on the respective sector.
   Hasina advised the industrial owners to explore new markets of RMG products in the rich countries of the Middle East and Africa as these new markets will reduce dependence of Bangladesh on the markets of the United States and Europe.
   She said the government had asked its foreign missions to work for exploring apparel market and steps had already been taken for setting up new mission offices in many countries.
   Hasina urged the owners to use solar energy system at their offices, which will help them use more electricity in their factories.
   Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association has arranged the three-day knitwear exhibition at the Sheraton Hotel. Around 153 buyers and investors from across the world are expected to attend the clothing fair.
   Finance minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith, labour and employment minister Khandaker Musharraf Hossain and commerce minister Faruk Khan also addressed the function.
   BKMEA president Fazlul Haque gave the welcome address of the function attended by ministers, advisers to the prime minister, state minister, MPs, and local and foreign investors.

A parliamentary panel on Monday pointed the finger at the owners of Nippon Garment Limited for Saturday’s rioting in Tongi and asked them to compensate the families of the dead and the injured.
   The violence sparked by the closure of a factory without notice left at least three people killed in police firing and scores of others injured. ‘If anyone claims the owners did not have a hand in the incident, we cannot give it any credibility,’ said Israfil Alam, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of labour and manpower. ‘Violence on such a scale could not have erupted without involvement of the owners.’
   ‘They must compensate for the damages,’ the panel chairman told the media after its meeting.
   Several thousand garment workers took to the streets in Tongi on the outskirts of the capital on Saturday and went on the rampage after they found their factory shut without notice and without payment of their dues.
   The panel was informed that the government had formed a committee to probe the violence and action would be taken as per law.
   The probe body was asked to report in 15 days.
   The state minister for labour and employment, Mannujan Sufian, who attended the meeting, said the factory management must pay compensation to the victims.
   ‘It is not easy to deny compensation to the victims.’
   The meeting also cleared the Bangladesh Labour Bill 2009, which was placed in the house on Sunday, suggesting its passage by the parliament.

A suicide bomber targeted workers queuing for their salaries outside a Pakistan bank and hotel on Monday, killing 34 people, as the United Nations pulled expatriate staff from the northwest.
   The second large-scale bomb to kill civilians in less than a week, the attack near the army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi showed the enormity of the threat that al-Qaeda-linked militants pose in Pakistan.
   The explosion outside a building housing a bank and the four-star Shalimar Hotel showered the area with human flesh, smearing blood on the ground and shattering windows.
   ‘Our building shook as if in an earthquake and when we came out there was smoke everywhere and body parts were thrown into our office,’ Raja Sher Ali, a marketing manager in a local company, said.
   Meanwhile, two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a police checkpoint near bus terminals at the entrance to Pakistan’s city of Lahore late Monday, wounding seven people, a senior police official said.
   The bombers struck after dark in the congested area on a link road to Pakistan’s intercity motorway that dissects the country from the northwestern city of Peshawar to the capital Islamabad and east to Lahore.
   ‘A car was stopped at the checkpost and the two suicide bombers in the car exploded themselves. We have found legs and a head,’ city police chief Pervez Rathor told reporters at the scene.
   A surge in bloodshed left more than 300 people dead last month as Pakistan presses a major offensive against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in the tribal belt, where US officials say al-Qaeda are plotting attacks on the West.
   A senior police official said the latest attack was the work of a suicide bomber, although rescue workers said the cause of the blast was still unclear.
   ‘The suicide bomber came on a motorcycle and blew up close to people gathered to get salaries. We found parts of a suicide vest and some body parts of the suicide attacker,’ senior police official Aslam Tarin told reporters.
   Deeba Shehnaz, a rescue workers spokeswoman, said there were 34 dead bodies lying in three different hospitals, with 32 people wounded.
   The attack struck near the upmarket Pearl Continental Hotel and Pakistan’s army headquarters, where 10 gunmen kept up a nearly 24-hour siege last month that left 23 people dead and deeply embarrassed the military.
   Pakistan vowed to persevere in its US-endorsed fight against Islamist networks, which have killed more than 2,420 people in a wave of suicide attacks and bombings within the nuclear-armed Muslim nation since July 2007.
   ‘It will not shake our determination to eradicate and to eliminate this menace,’ the foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, said on the sidelines of a conference of developing Islamic nations in Kuala Lumpur.
   The plummeting security situation saw the United Nations announce Monday it was pulling out international staff from northwest Pakistan, days after at least 118 people were slaughtered in a car bomb in its local capital Peshawar.
   ‘They will be relocated. Immediately,’ Ishrat Rizvi, a UN spokeswoman, said of the international workers in the area, unable to say immediately how many staff the decision affected.
   The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, raised the security level to ‘phase four’ in the North West Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which US officials say are hotbeds of militancy.

The government’s counsel on Monday said their efforts to complete the trial of the killers of the country’s founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had started in 1996 in order to restore discipline by ending the chaos that began after 15 August, 1975.
   In his first appearance in the 21-day hearing of the appeals at the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, the state’s chief prosecutor, Anisul Huq, also said that the government has been trying to restore the rule of law by completing this trial for the last 13 years.
   ‘The final stage of the trial represents a big step in the journey towards discipline from disorder in our national life,’ Anis told the five-member Appellate Division bench, led by Justice Tafazzul Islam, that had completed the hearing of the arguments of the defence counsels on behalf of the five condemned prisoners.
   Anis also said that the killing of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and seven members of his family had an adverse impact on both individual and national life. ‘The killing also changed the course of the nation’s history,’ he added.
   Anis said that the nation was awaiting the remedy that can be obtained only by completing trial.
   He said that court had allowed the defence to appeal against the High Court’s verdict that had upheld the death sentences of 12 former army personnel for five reasons.
   ‘One of reasons was that the third High Court judge might have made a mistake in his judgment by only resolving the two HC judges’ difference of opinion that centred on six out of the 15 convicts in the cases, without analysing the full content of the split verdict,’ he said. ‘The third judge upheld the death sentence of 12 convicts, though one the two judges sentenced 15 and the other one sentenced 10 of the convicts to death.’
   Referring to Section 378 of the Criminal Procedure Code, Anis said, ‘It depends on the third judge’s discretion whether s/he will hear the whole case or only the disputed points.’
   Anis said that the third judge had handed down his ruling after proper application of the law.
   ‘The third judge did not do anything illegal because his ruling was based on what he heard from the six convicts since there was difference of opinion between the two High Court judges only about them,’ he added.
   Citing the examples of the US and UK about split verdicts, Anis said, ‘The verdict of the trial court is upheld in case of a split verdict of the High Court judges in the US. There is no such scope in the UK because three High Court judges hear appeals there. The opinion of the majority is considered a ruling.’

The Chittagong Port Authority has taken up a move to revamp its own security system with fresh recruits as the army has downsized its presence in the port’s protected areas, officials said.
   ‘We need fresh recruits to reorganise our own security arrangements. A large number of troops were withdrawn from the port recently,’ said CPA chairman commodore RU Ahmed.
   Presently, only 130 soldiers are posted at the Chittagong Port to back up the port’s own 500-strong security system, officials said.
   About 400 soldiers were deployed at the country’s prime seaport to tighten the security and stop pilferage of imported goods.
   ‘We wrote to army headquarters seeking redeployment of the troops pulled out from here. But we did not get any positive response,’ the port chief said.
   The CPA has forwarded its recruitment plan to the ministry concerned and is waiting for a reply, he said.
   The port’s security director Lt Col Kamrul Islam said, ‘We are running short of our own security personnel. Even then we are making best efforts to keep protected areas safe.’
   He, however, pointed out that lack of necessary manpower prevented them from further strengthening their patrols inside the jetties as well as the vast port areas.
   Port’s security people last month nabbed four persons on suspicion of pilfering imported goods from a container.
   Port officials said security efficiency is a must for the gateway to global trade since the country’s 90 per cent import and export cargoes are routed through Chittagong Port that handles about 1,500 vessels a year.

People of 12 out of 13 Upazilas of Kishoreganj observed a dawn-to-dusk general strike on Monday against the government move to create Bhairab as a new district encompassing five Upazilas of greater Kishoreganj district.
   All shops and businesses were shut down and educational establishment remained closed as disgruntled people the 12 Upazilas, irrespective of their party affiliation, enforced the day-long hartal.
   People of Bhairab Upazila who have been welcoming the government move, however, did not observe the hartal.
   The shutdown disrupted road and rail communications along Dhaka, Mymensingh and Kishoreganj routes.
   Bhairab-bound Issa Khan Express was stuck at Nilganj Railway Station in Kishoreganj and Chittagong Mail halted at Sararchar Station under Bajitpur Upazila due to the general strike.
   Traffic on the roads were halted by barricades and burning tyres at least at 25 spots. Communication on the river routes also remained halted in Nikli and Bajitpur, witnesses said.
   The government earlier planned to create the new Bhairab district with five out of 13 Kishoreganj upazilas — Bajitpur, Bhairab, Katiadi, Kuliarchar and Nikli. The residents except those of Bhairab have rallied against the division of Kishoreganj district.
   ‘We will continue with our movements until our demands are met,’ Miah Mohammed Ferdous, president of the group protecting the district’s integrity, told a rally at Kishoreganj District Lawyers’ Association Building.
   Protest processions were taken out from various spots of the district town in support of the shutdown.
   The demonstrators set fire to an effigy of president Zillur Rahman in the town’s Gatail area at around 10:45am, witnesses said. Creating a new district of Bhairab was an election pledge of president Zillur Rahman who hails from the town and was elected to parliament from this constituency.
   Meanwhile, the people of three Upazilas — Bajitpur, Katiadi and Nikli — have been continuing their agitation for the second week to protest the inclusion of their Upazilas into the proposed Bhairab district.
   They demanded either the Upazilas should be kept under the administrative jurisdiction of Kishoreganj or a new administrative district should be created comprising the three upazilas.
   The government has in principle decided to form the new Bhairab district encompassing five Upazilas – Nikli, Bajitpur, Kuliarchar, Katiadi and Bhairab.

The Jail Killing Day will be observed today (Tuesday) to pay homage to Tajuddin Ahmed, Syed Nazrul Islam, M Mansoor Ali and AHM Qamruzzaman who were shot dead inside the Dhaka Central Jail 34 years ago.
   On this day in 1975 Syed Nazrul Islam, acting president of the Bangladesh government-in-exile in 1971, Tajuddin Ahmed, prime minister of the same government, M Mansoor Ali, finance minister, and AHM Qamruzzaman, minister for home affairs, were shot dead inside the jail.
   The murder of the four close associates of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh, was committed two and a half months before when he, along with all but two of his family, was brutally slain by a group of disgruntled army personnel on 15 August, 1975.
   The Awami League and its associate bodies have chalked up several programmes to mark the occasion.
   Black flags and the flags of the nation and Awami League will be hoisted atop Bangabandhu Bhaban and AL’s offices across the country.
   Awami League leaders will place flowers before the portrait of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at 7:01am and on the graves of the four leaders and others killed on August 15 in the Banani graveyard at 7:30am. The party will hold prayer sessions at the graveside.
   The party will hold a discussion in the Bangabandhu International Convention Centre at 3:00pm on Tuesday. Awami League president Sheikh Hasina will participate in the programme as chief guest and party presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, also deputy leader of the House, will preside over the discussion.
   In a statement AL’s general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, urged all units of the party and its associate bodies across the country to observe the day in a befitting manner.
   The Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote held a discussion at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity with actor Faruk in the chair.
   AL’s central leaders Mohammad Nasim, son of slain Mansoor Ali, said several conspiracies were being hatched to kill AL chief Sheikh Hasina, and militancy, fundamentalism and terrorism have to be uprooted from the country to protect her.
   He alleged that a certain international quarter, using anti-liberation forces, killed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the four founding leaders.
   The state minister for law, Quamrul Islam, said the government would start the trial of the killers of the four leaders of the government-in-exile. He also accused the previous Bangladesh Nationalist Party-Jamaat coalition government of derailing the judicial process in the murder case of the four leaders.

The government will appoint 13,500 community healthcare providers for as many community clinics across the country in next five years, health and family welfare minister AFM Ruhal Huq told the parliament on Sunday.
   He said the government would also provide the community clinics with mini-computer equipped with web-based camera system so that they could get telemedicine services from upazila, district and reputed public hospitals.
   He said all district and upazila level hospitals were provided with a mobile phone to enable local people to consult physicians anytime.
   ‘The process for appointing 13,500 community health care providers will start at the earliest,’ Ruhal Huq said in the question-answer hours in the house.
   One community healthcare provider will be sent to each community clinic, he said.
   Several lawmakers of the treasury bench demanded that the 31-bed hospitals in upazilas be upgraded to 50-bed ones. They also called for appointment of physicians, providing ambulances and medical equipment and medicine for hospitals in respective constituencies.
   The minister said the government had asked the Essential Drugs Company Limited to supply 5 lakh Oseltamivir capsules, which was used in the treatment of swine flu, in addition to current stock of one million capsules at the central medical store and 1.9 million capsules sent to district, upazila and medical college hospitals.

A court on Monday ordered the chief of the banned Harkat-ul-Jihad, Abdus Salam Sheikh, to be remanded in police custody for six days in connection with the August 21 grenade attack case after the criminal investigation department arrested him on the premises of Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court at around midday.
   The family of the arrested, however, claimed that CID police in plainclothes picked up Salam from the court premises on Sunday when he went there to meet with his lawyers.
   Salam, an Afghan war veteran, announced on April 30, 1992 the launch of Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami Bangladesh at a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka and demanded that Bangladesh be converted into an Islamic state.
   Second additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Habibur Rahaman Siddique passed the remand order after the CID produced Salam in the court seeking a 10-day police remand.
   On March 20 this year, the CID arrested Salam from his Bashundhara City residence in connection with the CPB rally bombing case after its arrested operative, Mufti Abdul Hannan, gave a confessional statement. Salam was released on bail on July 23 this year.
   Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami is suspected to have been involved in most of the deadly bomb attacks in the country, including the August 21, 2004 grenade attacks on an Awami League rally in the capital.
   The government banned Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami and its activities in Bangladesh on October 17, 2005.

South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder, said Monday it had won a 1.4 billion dollar deal to build an offshore gas platform in Myanmar.
   It said it secured the order from Daewoo International, a South Korean trading company which is leading a consortium to develop the gasfield off Rakhine state near the border with Bangladesh.
   Hyundai Heavy said it would build a platform capable of producing 500 million cubic feet of gas per day. Daewoo International plans to supply gas from the field by May 2013 to China.
   The shipbuilder said an official contract would be signed in December after Myanmar’s approval.
   Daewoo International in August announced investment of some 1.7 billion dollars to develop the gasfield as head of a consortium including state-run companies from India and South Korea.
   Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, is under economic sanctions by the United States and Europe because of its human rights record and long-running detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
   But the impact of the sanctions has been weakened as neighbours such as China, India and Thailand spend billions of dollars for a share of its oil and gas reserves.

Political parties will have to submit their ratified constitutions by January 24, 2010 to the Election Commission to get registered as the Jatiya Sangsad Monday passed the Representation of the People Order (Second Amendment) Bill 2009.
   The House approved the bill by voice vote rejecting an amendment proposal moved by an independent lawmaker to extend the time for six months. Law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister Shafique Ahmed sought passage of the bill after a brief discussion.
   Though Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led opposition alliance has been boycotting parliament over a seating arrangement row, a few BNP lawmakers had submitted proposals seeking public opinion on the bill. But those were not discussed.
   Independent lawmaker Fazlul Azim proposed extension of deadline to July 24 for political parties to submit ratified constitutions to the EC, a legal obligation for getting registered or keeping earlier registrations valid. But the amendment proposal was rejected.
   Requested by the EC, law minister Shafique Ahmed piloted the bill in the House on October 4, pointing out that many of the parties, which had submitted provisional constitutions to qualify for the December 29, 2008 elections, failed to hold their council sessions within the time stipulated by an ordinance promulgated by the past interim government.
   The EC had earlier given political parties six months' time from the first session of the ninth parliament and the deadline expired on July 24, 2009.
   Though the ruling Awami League hurried into holding its council session on the last day to fulfil the legal obligation, main opposition BNP did not comply with it. Senior leaders then said even a year's extension would not be enough for the party to complete formation of hundreds of committees right from the grassroots and set the stage for a national council.
   However, the party is now preparing for holding its council session in December.
   Failing to meet the deadline for 'unavoidable circumstances,' a number of political parties applied to the EC for time extension and it proposed one-year extension of the deadline.
   If any party fails to meet the extended deadline, its registration will stand cancelled, according to the new law.
   The bill was earlier sent to the parliamentary standing committee on the law ministry. Opposition BNP member on the committee, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury gave a note of dissent to the provision that stipulates that parties' registration would be cancelled if they fail to submit ratified constitutions within 12 months since the birth of the ninth parliament.
   He alleged that the provision was targeting the BNP and warned, 'Any attempt to cancel BNP's registration will cause political instability and put the constitutional continuity at risk.'

The president, Hamid Karzai, was declared winner of Afghanistan's chaotic August election by organisers, who ruled Monday that a run-off could not legally or practically go ahead with just one candidate.
   'We declare that Hamid Karzai, who won the majority of votes in the first round, and is the only candidate in the second
   round, is the elected president of Afghanistan,' Independent Election Commission chairman Azizullah Ludin said.
   The move comes one day after former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah announced he would not participate in the November 7 head-to-head poll for fear of a repeat of widespread fraud which marred the first round in August.
   Ludin said the move was made in line with Afghan electoral law, the constitution and was 'consistent with the high interest of the Afghan people'.
   Article 61 of the constitution 'states that the run-off election can only be held between the two leading candidates in the first round,' Ludin said.
   The commission had 'taken note of the current situation where there
   is only one candidate to contest the run-off,' he added.
   'The unexpected announcement of Dr Abdullah Abdullah ... caused a huge challenge for the elections and people of Afghanistan,' he added.
   The IEC chief said the commission was also acting to save money, given 'the huge expense that the election requires' and also cited security reasons.
   The decision will 'prevent uncertainty which creates a lot of challenges to stability and security in the country,' he said.
   IEC officials said initially that the ballot would take place next Saturday,
   arguing that Abdullah
   had missed the deadline
   for withdrawal, but the commission had been under heavy international pressure to scrap the contest.
   The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, flew into Kabul on Monday to hold talks with Karzai and Abdullah.
   Shortly before the IEC's announcement, Ban told a press conference that the UN would support and respect any decision from the commission.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has advised the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party to refrain from supporting the killers and war criminals.
   She made the call in parliament while speaking on a motion censuring the attack on Awami League lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh on October 21.
   Taposh's father Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni, founder chairman of Juba League, was assassinated at night of August 15 in 1975, hours before the country's founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed in a military coup along with most of his family.
   'Those who rewarded the (August 15) killers were involved in the attack,' Hasina said in her brief remarks.
   She accused the opposition party for hatching conspiracies to destabilise the government and democracy.
   The Awami League chief alerted the people to the vindictive acts of August 15 killers and their cohorts.
   Senior Awami League lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta moved the motion to censure the October 21 attack which Taposh narrowly escaped.
   'What was her problem in issuing a statement condemning the attack (on Taposh)?' Sheikh Hasina said. 'What was the obstruction?'
   As many as 25 treasury bench lawmakers participated in the discussion that continued for about three hours. The motion was adopted unanimously.
   Terming it as an attack on parliament and pro-democratic forces, the lawmakers claimed that BNP and its political ally Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami might have a hand in it.
   They demanded a proper investigation into the incident and punishment of the culprits.
   The members of parliament said the attack on Taposh was part of the same plot that killed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family in 1975 and series of attacks on rallies of Awami League at Bangabandhu Avenue, Communist Party of Bangladesh at Paltan Maidan, Udichi in Jessore and at Ramna ground in the city in last few years.
   They suspected that the attack was designed to stop trials of killing of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, grenade blasts at Awami League rally in 2004 and 1971 war crimes.
   Home minister Sahara Khatun assured the Jatiya Sangsad that the attackers of Taposh would be brought to book.
   Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim said the BNP and its founder Ziaur Rahman rewarded the killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and rehabilitated Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami in politics.
   Mainuddin Khan Badal of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal suggested 'a resolute stand' to bring the country back to the track and spirit for what the War of Liberation was fought in 1971.
   Ministers Abdul Latif Siddique and Shajahan Khan, lawmakers Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir, Abdul Mannan, Nurul Islam Sujan, Tanvir Shakil Joy, Meher Afroz Chumki of Awami League and ABM Ruhul Amin Hawladar of Jatiya Party, among others, participated in the discussion.

The Nepalese government has run out of money for essential services including hospitals and schools after the Maoist party blocked its new budget, the finance minister said Monday.
   Surendra Pandey said the impoverished nation faced a 'financial crisis' if parliament failed to pass the budget in the next two weeks, and had already been forced to stop paying ministers' salaries.
   Maoist demonstrators have repeatedly prevented Nepal's parliament from sitting since the party's government fell in May, blocking the new administration's attempts to pass this year's budget.
   'We are at a very critical stage,' Pandey said. 'If the budget is not passed in the next two weeks, there will be a financial crisis in the country.
   'We are in discussions with the Maoists to open parliament to pass the budget and we hope they will allow the resumption of house business.'
   Pandey said the crisis would affect thousands of patients in government-run hospitals as well as school pupils and prison inmates.
   'We are now unable to release funds for essential services in major government hospitals, including paediatric and maternity hospitals, which will affect the treatment of thousands of patients,' he said.
   'We are also worried about the condition of prison inmates as we won't be able to release money for food.'
   Nepal's Maoist-led government fell in May after less than a year in power in a row over the future of the army.
   The former guerrillas waged a decade-long war against the state before a UN-brokered peace agreement ended the conflict in 2006.
   Nepalese law states that government departments can spend up to one third of their allocation before parliament approves the new budget, and Pandey said almost half had now reached that limit.

The government has once again cut prices of non-urea fertilisers.
   The price of TSP has been slashed to Tk 22 from Tk 40 per kg, MOP to Tk 25 from Tk 35 and DAP to Tk 30 from Tk 40.
   The announcement came at a press conference Monday where the agriculture minister, Matia Chowdhury, and the industry minister, Dilip Barua, were present.
   Barua said the price at dealer-level would be TSP at 20 Tk, MOP at Tk 23 and DAP at Tk 28.
   The decision came as international prices have come down and to encourage farmers to use non-urea fertilisers, said the agriculture minister.
   'The current government is farmer-friendly; the prices have been slashed once again to protect farmers' interest,' Matia told the press briefing at the ministry.
   But, urea fertiliser would be sold at the old price, Tk 12 per kg, she added.

The United Nations said Monday it was withdrawing expatriate staff from northwest Pakistan, raising its security alert to the second highest level in an area thick with Taliban insurgents.
   The re-location orders apply to UN international staff working on long-term development programmes but do not affect humanitarian workers. UN officials were unable to specify the numbers of personnel involved.
   'They will be relocated. Immediately,' Ishrat Rizvi, a UN spokeswoman, told AFP in reference to the international staff deemed non-essential who previously made day trips into North West Frontier Province.

The secretary general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, will arrive in Dhaka on Tuesday on a three-day visit to Bangladesh, says a press release issued by the OIC office in Jeddah.
   Ihsanoglu will have talks with the president, Zillur Rahman, the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and other high-ranking officials, says the statement issued by Abdelhamid Salhi of the OIC's information department.
   It said the OIC chief would also attend convocation of the Islamic University of Technology in Gazipur.
   The statement says the secretary general comes at the invitation of the foreign minister, Dipu Moni.
   Ihsanoglu will also visit Dhaka University and deliver a talk on 'OIC's Vision Meeting the Challenges for the 21st Century', the statement further says.

Drik Gallery in Dhaka on Monday closed its exhibition, styled 'Into Exile -Tibet 1949--2009,' as a mark of its protest against the government and Chinese embassy for obstructing the show.
   'Having registered our indignation at the actions of government and Chinese embassy officials, we closed the exhibition as a sign of protest,' said a Drik Gallery press release.
   Despite pressure from both the sides, the opening took place outside the gallery on Sunday as the gallery premises had been locked by the police.
   The Bangladeshi chapter of the Students for a Free Tibet, in association with Drik, organised the show.
   'We went ahead with the opening as it is a part of Drik's struggle for the freedom of cultural expression,' said the release.
   'We are particularly affronted at being asked by officials of a foreign state to cancel the exhibition. We strongly believe that governments should have the courage to present their views at cultural platforms and to try and convince people by arguing their case, in other words, acting democratically, rather than using intimidation and heavy-handed tactics,' it said.

A farmer was killed and three of his family members were injured in an attack allegedly by their rivals at Dulalpur village in Shibpur upazila of Narsingdi on Sunday midnight over a land dispute.
   The deceased was Baset Fakir, 35, of the village.
   The police said Baset and one Tara Miah of neighbouring Dutter- gaon village had a long-standing dispute over a piece of land.
   As a sequel to the conflict, Tara Miah along with his supporters attacked the house of Baset at about 12 midnight and beat him up him, leaving Baset critically injured.
   The attackers also beat up Baset's mother, wife and daughter as they came for his rescue.